Or maybe Pogba finds it difficult when faced against quality playmaking midfielders such as Verratti, Moutinho and Barca's midfield. He's someone who doesn't have the smart thinking to quickly pick out the right option nor the spatial awareness to know where to be at all times. And for someone like Pogba who has this need to often feel the ball under his feet rather than make a quick pass, he needs to have quality close control to buy time for himself while doing such, which he doesn't have and this can be purnished much more in a close nit midfield that has little spaces to operate hence why Pogba has struggled so far. Same happened in the Europa final where he looked like a school kid against Ajax's young boys (granted they weren't incisive despite their midfield domination) and we had to resort to long ball to Fellaini.Its what worries me with Ander leaving. We saw McTominay and Fred play well together, but we havent seen Pogba play at his best next to them and we've had trouble getting the most out of Pogba in other systems and with other personnel.
Ander seems to do the dirty work and Pogba does the high quality offensive stuff. I obviously hope he adjusts to playing with Fred and McTominay with the way things to be going with Ander. But with the struggle we've had to get him playing as well as he has this season, I don't have a lot of confidence in him adjusting.
I'm not talking about specifically in the Barcelona match. I'm talking about anytime Pogba has had a good run of form, its been with Ander in the midfield.Or maybe Pogba finds it difficult when faced against quality playmaking midfielders such as Verratti, Moutinho and Barca's midfield. He's someone who doesn't have the smart thinking to quickly pick out the right option nor the spatial awareness to know where to be at all times. And for someone like Pogba who has this need to often feel the ball under his feet rather than make a quick pass, he needs to have quality close control to buy time for himself while doing such, which he doesn't have and this can be purnished much more in a close nit midfield that has little spaces to operate hence why Pogba has struggled so far. Same happened in the Europa final where he looked like a school kid against Ajax's young boys (granted they weren't incisive despite their midfield domination) and we had to resort to long ball to Fellaini.
So I would say no, Herrera's absence isn't the reason for Pogba's poor performance because Herrera played against PSG and the previous Wolves match. Pogba is just who he is, that is, dangerous when given the space and time in the midfield and back to his poor self whenever faced against quick smart thinking midfielders that doesn't give room for such space.
As for the topic, I would love to have a player with both attributes, that is, productive both in goals and assists. Someone who's pacy, has got quality close control and agility to turn on the ball while dribbling at great pace and has not only got the vision to pick out his teammates with quality throughballs/crossing but also, can go all alone when he see a chance of scoring. I really want someone who's direct and forceful in his approach such as Mane, Sane and Hazard for Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea respectively. Martial isn't as direct as the former. He seems to be a player who loves to operate at the same pace with the team's flow and would rather prefer the play to come to him than force it. He does force it at times but not consistently.
I expect our strikers to score more goals with a creator supplying them better than just being too dependent on Pogba. If we can loan a right winger for a season we should seriously look to invest in an attacking midfielder/creator in the middle first than blow it on a winger who will add balance but not add the numbers we want in terms of chances and goals.Both really. It is no good creating if the people up top waste those chances. We need goals from midfield and up top to compete for the top prizes.
I'm leaning towards needing a creator, too. Rashford can be the scorer, but watching the last couple of games where a lot of folks seem to think he's been pretty useless, I really get the feeling he just needs better players around him. Or maybe just one good creative player with whom our 21-year-old striker can develop a working relationship. More than that, it would benefit Pogba as well.We need creativity and someone who can play good through balls to make use of our striker's pace. If we push for Rashford as our main striker, long balls will be useless as he is physically not a lukaku and I wouldn't expect him to win headers. We should aim for a slick passer who can also shoot from outside the box when needed.
Yeah our top 4 scorers are all on 10+ goals, but only have a combined 43.Sure. Only in the league:
Agüero, Sterling, Sane, Silva x2, Mahrez and Gündogan are all on 5+ goals (and 2 will end up with 20+);
Salah, Mane and Firmino are all on 10+ (and at least 2 will finish on 20+);
Barca are very Messi-centric, but they have 2 20+ forwards already plus 8 goals from Dembele and 5 from Coutinho;
PSG has 4 players that will end up with 10+ goals, if not for Neumar’s Injury they’d probably have 3 players with more than 20 goals in the league itself;
The difference is, all of them have at least one goalscorer who is on another level completely compared to ours.
Yes but first you have to create chances which we don't do enough of.Goalscorer because I dont trust Lukaku, Rashford or Martial to be efficient converters of chances, bar Martial maybe.
You still can't get it. There are people on this forum taking every opportunity to push forward their agenda. Do we need a RW - get a new striker. Do we need a RB - get a new striker. Do we need a new CB - get a new striker......Yes but first you have to create chances which we don't do enough of.